I've been thinking off and on about milestones from the earlier part of life. Why do I remember vivid details about some and others I can't quite remember. Yet, I can sing all the lyrics to The Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan's Island, Green Acres and such....oh yes, Petticoat Junction too. Like I can remember the day my parents too me to college. I remember how loaded down the car was with everything I thought I would possibly need for college life. I don't remember arriving or them leaving me there at Falls Hall. I do remember Sherry and I had picked out this really cute Noah's Ark themed decor from JC Penney's and I had kept the quilted bedspread of it up until a couple of years ago. At one of my first meals in the cafeteria I mistook a jalapeno for one of those salad peppers, a mistake I have not made again and then after dinner rubbed my eye and the juice from the pepper still clung to my fingertips. Yea, I made a great first impression on all that collegian dinner. I know if I go back to my journals I will be reminded of that day but just off the top of my head...no go. Sometimes when I think about guys I dated, I can see their faces but lo, I cannot remember their names for the life of me. Guess I didn't practice writing Mrs.___________ enough in my notebooks or something. And I liked those boys even a couple I thought I might marry...first name David but can't think of his last name at all. Not that this is keeping me up at nights, I just find it interesting what we remember, even sometimes minute details and other times those most important things....gone, haven't a clue and again if I found my journal from that time, it would all flood back into those memories.
Guess I have been thinking of these things since I have started reading memoirs. Just today I read a great blog post on literary memoirs and made note a few more books to read, not that I need anymore to read. If I were to write a memoir and I'm not, the theme of the stories would center around seeing through lies and stories adults told and then unwisely questioning or calling them out on them. Not to be malicious but thinking truth mattered and I hadn't learned that adults don't like children to see through their explanations of things and the end result is not truth but usually punishment for the child. Years ago I noticed my niece Megan had the same ability and I shared with her that it is troubling as a child but it will serve you well as an adult. She was just a young child when I told her that, I doubt she even remembers that warning. I never read the book but it must be kind of like Judge Judy's book, Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It Is Raining.
In the midst of all these thoughts I tried to remember sermons preached and lessons taught through the years. I was at Explo 72, kind of would be like Passion Conferences now, and I remember being with my friends but I don't remember one word that was preached. I remember examples and props used in the recent past, but I don't remember what point they were supporting. The exception to this would be Beth Moore, my LBS teacher and a few other retreat or conference speakers but what they taught at that time, resonated where I was in life at that time. Musical and worship experiences do stand out in my mind maybe because in worship and singing, it is truly an experience that one participates in.
Reading Twitter comments about the #SBC14 is kind of like watching the birds at the bird feeder which happens to have been one of the things I did today at the same time. There are those who are more interested in fighting and scaring off other birds, there are birds sitting under the rose bushes fearful of all the clatter going on over their heads at the feeder and there are those who are fighting for a place at the table, feeder. Some birds are content to chase and peck other birds as they chase after seed being dropped from above and then there are those few who are content to eat and drink and stay out of the conflicts. My little scraggly looking mockingbird is on the fence looking in at the fray. Sometimes standing there with its mouth wide open and I don't know if it is trying to look scary or if it thinks maybe its mom is near by. Yep, I think my birds outside the window kind of describe my feelings about the whole SBC convention thing. In reality nothing done there affects my walk with Christ, it may affect church, but not my personal walk with the Savior. I am too far down the chain for anything happening there to make a difference in my life; being married but not a mother, not domestically minded or fit the profile of what a truly spiritual Baptist woman should look like, although I did get a great laugh about the ever famous, ever boring, never relevant Sunday School Quarterly being called popular.
Since I will be spending some extended time in the Asheville area soon, I've been looking online at church websites. For sure I know I'm not going back to Biltmore Baptist after the lest than stellar Sunday morning I spent there in May. Looks like the WMU is alive and thriving in NC and maybe a bit of the music wars still going on. I have started looking at Episcopal and Presbyterian churches to visit. Oh...just thought of this, maybe I am due for a visit to the Chapel of the Prodigal in Montreat, for a quick check in and a fatted calf lunch which could be barbecue. I'm good with that.
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